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Joseph Naso appears in Marin County Superior Court during his arraignment on murder charges in San Rafael, Calif. on Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2011. Naso of Reno, Nev., is being held on suspicion of murder in the deaths of four women whose bodies were found across Northern California from 1977 to 1994. (AP Photo/Marin Independent Journal, Alan Dep)

Investigators are said to be scanning the country for unsolved slayings of strangled prostitutes as the search continues for possible victims of serial killing suspect Joseph Naso.

Investigators have asked police agencies to search through unsolved cases involving prostitutes whose bodies were found dumped in rural areas, Bay Area News Group has learned.

The slaying method generally fits what is known about the four Northern California victims investigators have linked to Naso, including two women with East Bay connections.

Police sources say it’s possible Naso is responsible for killing a number of victims from California to New York state over decades.

The search began in earnest this month when Marin County prosecutors charged the 77-year-old Reno man with four murders, saying he killed and discarded women in Northern California, two in the 1970s, and two in the 1990s. If convicted, Naso could be sentenced to death.

Evidence authorities found during a probation search of Naso’s home in 2010 linked him to the unsolved killings of Roxene Roggasch, found near Fairfax in January 1977; Carmen Colon, found near Crockett in August 1978; Pamela Parsons, found in September 1993 in Linda, near Yuba City; and Tracy Tafoya, found in Marysville in August 1994.

In addition to the killing method, investigators paid close attention to the alliterative names of the four victims, especially in light of the infamous 1970s “double initial” slayings of three Catholic schoolgirls in Rochester, N.Y., each with matching first and last initials, and one also named Carmen Colon.

Naso, born in the Rochester area, visited the area frequently during the 1970s, New York State Police said. They were re-examining their cases in light of Naso’s arrest.

Bay Area investigators also targeted missing persons or cold cases involving victims with the same first and last initials, including one woman killed shortly after Naso’s first known victim was found.

Melody Masters was found bludgeoned to death in her San Anselmo cabin Jan. 27, 1977, two weeks after the discovery of Roggasch, the earliest victim linked to Naso and whose body was dumped in neighboring Fairfax. San Anselmo police took the unsolved case to the Naso task force, noting Masters’ alliterative name.

“All agencies dug through their reports to double check,” said San Anselmo Detective Julie Gorwood. “You never know how prolific someone can be.”

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office, which has been fielding all Naso-related media inquiries, declined to comment Friday on motivations in the Naso case.

Investigators will not say whether the four women he’s accused of killing were prostitutes, but indications suggest some might have been.

Roggasch’s body was found in heavy brush off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard on the east side of White’s Hill. She wore only pantyhose, her feet had been tied together with white fabric, and she had been dead fewer than 24 hours and likely suffocated, investigators said at the time.

Detectives pursued leads — including a prostitute’s claim that Roggasch was kidnapped and tortured by their mutual pimp — but no charges were filed.

Roggasch’s stepfather said the family had no indication that she was involved in prostitution. The last the family heard, Roggasch, who attended Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, had a baby and joined a traveling circus, he said.

A California Highway Patrol officer found Colon’s nude, decomposing body face down in a pile of garbage off Carquinez Scenic Highway near Port Costa. Authorities at the time believed Colon was killed elsewhere and dumped, but there were no obvious signs of trauma.

Colon had been arrested for prostitution in Oakland a few months before her slaying, records show.

A passer-by found Parsons’ body, and investigators believed she was killed shortly before she was discovered. A Yuba County Sheriff’s Office detective told a newspaper at the time that evidence suggested foul play, but no cause of death was indicated.

Parsons was a drug addict and occasional prostitute, according to a former friend.

“It’s not a fairy tale story,” he said of Parsons’ life. “It’s about sex, drugs and craziness.”

Tafoya was found naked, face down in the weeds about 25 feet down an embankment near a cemetery by a newspaper carrier on his way to church. The then-sheriff hypothesized that her body had been there five days and maybe was thrown from a car along Highway 70. The mother of five had a history of drug use, but no mention of prostitution.

Margaret Prisco, who Naso stalked but did not attack, was not a prostitute. Naso wrote in three notebooks detailing how he wanted to torture his San Francisco neighbor and she was No. 10 on a “to-do list,” her husband, Thaddeus Iorizzo, said an investigator told him.

Who is Joseph Naso? The 77-year-old serial killing suspect spent decades living in the Bay Area before moving to a dusty, far-flung Reno neighborhood, a recluse among recluses. On Monday, we take a closer look at the man accused of killing four women in Northern California.

Robert Salonga is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering criminal justice and public safety for The Mercury News. A San Jose native, he attended UCLA and has a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously reported in Washington, D.C., Salinas and the East Bay, and is a middling triathlete. Reach him the low-tech way at 408-920-5002.

Matthias Gafni is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He has reported and edited for Bay Area newspapers since he graduated from UC Davis, covering courts, crime, environment, science, child abuse, education, county and city government, and corruption. A Bay Area native, he loves his Warriors, Giants and 49ers. Send tips to 925-952-5026 or mgafni@bayareanewsgroup.com. Send him an encrypted text on Signal at 408-921-8719.

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